Linemen say sacks not system's fault

AP File PhotoDetroit's Jon Kitna is sacked by Philadelphia's Brodrick Bunkley during the Lions' Week 3 loss to the Eagles.

ALLEN PARK -- Most NFL quarterbacks who get sacked 15 times over a two-game period would begin to get very irritated at:

A. the offensive linemen
B. the offensive game plan, or
C. both.

Detroit Lions quarterback Jon Kitna, though, has another option: D. none of the above. "That's what I signed up for," he said.

In the scheme designed by offensive coordinator Mike Martz, Kitna said he knew when he came to Detroit that he was going to take a lot of hits, but he didn't care.

"I've never had so much fun playing football," said Kitna, an 11-year veteran. "I've been on offenses where you don't get hit much, but you're getting chunks three yards at a time, too. In this last game, with 40 seconds to go in the third quarter, we're on our 20-yard line and then, before the quarter's over, we're on their 10-yard line. That's what this offense is about.

"You're going to take some hits, but I really think for this football team this year that's not the norm. We got into a bad situation in Philly, obviously, and Chicago is a great pass-rushing team. As things settled down in the second half (last week), things worked a lot better."

The offensive linemen know that a Martz-led offense will occasionally put the quarterback in peril, but that's not good enough for them.

"You never want to give up sacks even though it is in the context of the offense," center Dominic Raiola said. "We've got to do better and hold blocks longer if that's what it takes. That's not what we're going to hold our standards to, we have to protect him. If we take seven-step drops on every play, that's on us. You can't just brush it under the rug and say we're going to have sacks because we're in this offense."

"We understand we're going to pass the ball a lot, and we're not always going to be in max protection -- the majority of time we won't be," left tackle Jeff Backus said. "I still think the guys who are out there, regardless of what the circumstances are, take a lot of pride in what we do and our goal is to not have any sacks."

Left guard Edwin Mulitalo, who is in his first season with Detroit, said the scheme is not responsible for the number of sacks the Lions have been giving up lately. After allowing basically two sacks in the first two games, the Lions have surrendered 15 in the past two.

"You accept that you're going to give up some (sacks), but you try not to give up the ones I'd call the 'easy' sacks," Mulitalo said. "Of course we're going to throw the ball, but we should be able to block those out. The mistakes we've made, we know shouldn't have happened.

"When a guy comes through clean, that's not supposed to happen. It's the sacks that come off the mental errors that have to stop."

Raiola said the offensive linemen have to be more patient in their pass protections because teams are getting tricky in their efforts to pressure Kitna.

"We're giving up sacks to guys who are faking they're (blitzing) and then they turn back and we'll go to another guy and then the (blitzer) will shoot the (gap). We've got to stay on our assignments and our protection detail," Raiola said. "Some of it's physical -- you're going to get beat in this league -- but the mental ones we should be able to clean up."

"I totally agree. The mental stuff we can control," Backus said. "At this level of play, no matter who you are, you're going to get beat. Hopefully, that'll be a limited number of times but the things we can control are staying mentally into the game and being mentally prepared and recognizing what they're doing. The physical stuff is working every day in practice and working on your technique and your skills."

LIONS NOTES
Injury updates -- Stephen Peterman has replaced Damien Woody as the right guard in the starting lineup. Peterman got his first start last week when Woody was sidelined with a rib injury and Peterman played well enough to win the job against Washington. Running back Brian Calhoun (knee) was placed on the injured reserve list and the team re-signed Aveion Cason, who is expected to return kickoffs.